Thermal radiation TM polarization characteristics of a negative refractive index thin film was studied based on the transmit matrix method and Kirchhoff radiation law. The influence of the thin film pa- rameters on the thermal radiation directional characteristics and spectral property were discussed. And the influence of the evanescent waves was also discussed. The results show that two factors play important roles in the thermal radiation of negative index thin film: one is the interference effect of the thin film structure to the electromagnetic waves; the other is the photon tunneling effect of the negative refractive index material, which was caused by the amplifying evanescent wave. These indicate that spectral and directional characteristics of the thermal emissivity can be modulated by modifying the structure and the physics parameters of the negative refraction index thin film.
